How to stop feeding/suckling to sleep

[teaandkittehs]

I have a 15 week old, delivered at 37 weeks, whi is very heavily reliant on feeding/suckling to sleep. I currently am mostly breadtfeed, but will stop by 6 months for various reasons. I presume it is possible to feed to sleep on the bottle too.
Either way, most advice seems to indicate that this is a bad habit. At present she sleeps relatively well at night, but of course the dreaded sleep regression could hit at any time. I would love to hear about others experiences of feeding to sleep and/or breaking the habit. I am sometimes used as a human dummy until she hits deep sleep, I also want to avoid introducing an actual dummy! I don't mind this while she sleeps well but since poor maternity pay and me being main breadwinner means I was back at work at 12 weeks, (admittedly wfh until september) I am worried about the effect on me/us if sleep degrades, as well as longterm problems from forming this habit! Thanks all x

In a kind manner.. please educate yourself on normal baby behaviour.
Suckling to sleep is natural and normal and certainly NOT a "bad habit" and please don't let anyone ever tell you it is.
Sleep is developmental and babies sleep through (or longer stretches) without suckling when they are ready to. There is a good book called the gentle sleep book which has a lot of information about infant sleep.
Babies won't be babies for long and it sounds like your baby is sleeping well at the moment so try not to worry about upcoming regressions as your baby may sail through them just fine.
Your baby is just 15 weeks, imagine being on the earth just 15 weeks.

And just to add with my experience .. my son is 15 months and still breast fed (yes to sleep too). He started sleeping through about 2 months ago. We are having a rough patch at the moment because he is teething and he wants more feeds. But he went from feeding a couple of times to just once before bed and then nothing until the morning. He did this of his own accord (developmentally ready).

Not so - there are significant differences of opinion on this. I've done my reading on both sides of the argument and I gather there is quite an argument for babies to be able to put themselves to sleep without relying on feeding. If your baby wakes 8 times a night you shouldnt feed them 8 times a night and just putting them on the boob again and again will lead to reliance on doing so to get to sleep. Its less of a problem when they only wake once or twice a night as mine does currently, but if things degrade then feeding continually won't do and I won't be breastfeeding for much longer as I am at work as I said. I could do with some advice on the question I asked I.e how to divert the habit, if you have any? We are combi feeding and this cow and gate anti reflux formula seems to knock her out so it achieves the same but you can't formula feed multiple times a night even more so than breastfeeding feeding because it is so dense and will result in overfeeding, so the situation is only sustainable as long as she sleeps well, and I want her to be able to go back to sleep when not hungry without suckling. Its not something you want to have to wrestle an older child out of, from what I have read on Huckleberry etc.

What other way would you wish for your baby to fall asleep?
It's natural to fall asleep after breast/bottle.
What you could do is try and force her to stay wake until the end of the feed and then use another method to settle her eg rock to sleep or leave her in the cot awake and see if she drifts off herself.
Your baby isn't even 4 months old and you want her to grow up and put herself to sleep. Don't worry she won't always need your help to fall asleep.
Yes formula will most likely make her sleep longer because it's a lot harder to digest but does unfortunately increase the risk of SIDS.

I think you're just getting the wrong idea,.dont get so angry. I've seen plenty of this on mumsnet, (which i am new to) it's called a difference of opinion. No one is asking a 15 week old to grow up, that's just a silly thing to say, plenty of babies fall asleep feeding and plenty don't 😂I'm looking for advice on my actual question - it's fine if you do things differently! All the best with your little ones.

Hi! Sorry late to the thread!

I have a 20 week old who is exclusively formula fed. She's a great sleeper at night, we do bath, bottle and bed.

I have had such anxiety about how she sleeps in the day as it seems that she is completely reliant on being rocked. I have been SO anxious about this and creating a bad habit. BUT, I've got to the point where I was thinking about it constantly rather than enjoying my time with her, I'm a first time mum and constantly worrying that I'm doing it right! I would say that it sounds like you're doing things perfectly. There is so much conflicting advice online that i now just go with what my baby likes. Despite the rocking in the day, she never wants this at night. She's 5 months old and her 'regression' was simply wanting her dummy put back in every 2 hours at night and then this just randomly stopped!!

Great mummy for wanting to do what is right for your baba, try not to worry and enjoy your time (easier said than done at some points!)